We can meet with the Lord before ever coming to God’s house. That is very, very important.
You say, “Well, this isn’t God’s house.”
When we are all together it is God’s house. It is God’s people.
Also something very important. The fact that we are meeting here and that Christ is with us indicates importance. You should prepare your children’s hearts in the same way, that we are going to meet with God’s people. Christ will be among us. Have a time of prayer with your children in the morning. Maybe read some Scripture with them. This is a special day.
And why is it special? Because we have come together in the name of Jesus Christ.
So what I want to do right now is I want us to pray. I want you to pray. And I want you to think about what is being done here today. We are going to worship the Lord collectively. If that truth brings to your mind that you do not worship the Lord privately, then ask him to forgive you and ask him to restore unto you that privilege to worship him privately. Ask him to strengthen you that you might better prepare the hearts of your children to come to be with God’s people.
This is so important. I am not all about rigidness at all, but I never want anything to be common. We are sitting here. We are not dressed in ties or suits or anything like that nor would I ever want that. But here is what I want you to see. Nothing is casual. Everything is special. Everything is holy. Everything is beautiful. Everything ought to be as though it was the first time you ever saw it. And coming to meet with God’s people is an absolutely wonderful thing. It is wonderful.
And so let’s go to the Lord and let’s ask him to teach us to cherish every moment as though it were brand new. Every time it enters into our heart we get to be with God’s people, we get to think, you know, Christ will be there in a special way. Isn’t that exciting?
Did you come here with expectation to see God do something in your life? Let’s pray.
Father, I come before you today and, Father, I praise you and worship you. Your love, oh Lord, reaches to the heavens and your faithfulness to the skies. You have always been our keeper. Even from our mother’s womb you have led us. You have watched over us, even when we did not know you, we did not know your name. Even when we were rebels before you, oh God, you knew us and you protected us. And on the day that you chose to get the most glory for yourself, you called us out of darkness into light. You introduced us to your Son. You changed our hearts so that we saw him to be beautiful.
Father, that work that you did there on that day, I pray that it will continue, that every day we would see Christ as more precious, as more beautiful to us, that we would love him with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength, that the passion of our life will teach our children to do the same.
Father, nothing is special unless you are here with us, unless Christ is walking and talking to us in this place. Father, help us. Strengthen us. Clean our minds of everything that would bring confusion, Lord, of everything that would be an obstacle to meditating on what is truly worthy. Father, help us. Strengthen us that we might worship thee, that we might understand Your Word and that you might be blessed Lord in what occurs here today.
Lord, help us. And do so in such a way that we leave here knowing that we have been helped. Father, I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
A wonderful reminder to prepare our hearts for worship. I personally can tell a difference in my worship if I took the time before coming to read and pray. Is this a mistake? Certainly not, we were created to respond this way. You can see God’s gracious reminder for us to do this in the OT when he had the priest offer incense (prayers) to Him on the alter which was placed (according to God’s direction) just outside the veil of the Holy of Holy’s. So we too should do likewise before entering through the torn veil.